An accumulation of reports about Microsoft, its patent trolls, use of Novell, Red Hat's response and other trolls

In the sleepy village of Santa Clara, there lived a very wealthy but very frightened giant named Intel. Intel was plagued by a fearsome band of evil trolls -- patent trolls, to be exact -- who wanted a glittering pot of gold in exchange for doing absolutely nothing. And they were very powerful because they said they owned the patent on some of the magic Intel used to become rich."

Familiar patent trolls, including Ray Niro and Acacia, make another appearance

This American Life's recent episode "When Patents Attack!" brought much new awareness to the problems that software patents and patent trolls create. So it's ironic that the show is only available in the patent-encumbered MP3 format. Sign the petition asking them to help be part of the solution by using Ogg Vorbis!

OIN scoops up Microsoft patents that were put up for grabs (potentially by patent trolls); similarity to Intellectual Ventures seen

Philips might be taken to court after using illegal force to 'protect' patents; US candidates on patent reform; patent trolls watch.

Europe not only accommodates patent trolls (even in Belgium) but it also intends to make them more potent thanks to legislation that the Parliament in Brussels in discussing

"End Software Patents, a project working toward the elimination of software patents, was launched today. The ESP project will initially focus on two approaches: 1) assisting corporations that choose to challenge software patents in the courts and at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on the basis that patents for software and designs with no physically innovative step have no legal validity, and 2) public education aimed at passing laws to protect software from patent law. [...] In a separate announcement today, ESP released its first report on the current state of software and business method patents. The report covers the economic impact of software patents, including the $11.4 billion that U.S. businesses waste each year on software patent litigation.

Patents as a tool that protects the ’small inventor’ may be a Big Myth. They only protect monopolies and feed patent trolls that are not the ’small inventor’ but are rather the ‘vicious lawyer’.